Facebook sued over selling users’ data

Facebook is being sued over claims it has been monitoring private messages of its users and selling the data to advertisers and marketers.

Users of the social network in the US have alleged that Facebook scans messages composed by users and if they contain links to another website, it follows the link and looks for information in order to profile the sender’s web activity.

A lawsuit, filed by two Facebook users in federal court in San Jose, California, states that the links to third-party websites are interpreted as a “like” of that website and helps profile the user’s activity on the web for targeted advertising.

Hacker News, for instance, revealed in 2012 the practice of recording links in private messages as “likes”. At the time, some questioned if users knew that links in their messages were being scanned.

This is done “to improve its marketing algorithms and increase its ability to profit from data about Facebook users”, the lawsuit says.

Such a practice is in violation of the US Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California privacy and unfair competition laws, the lawsuit notes.

The lawsuit cites independent research which found Facebook reviews the contents of its users’ private messages “for purposes unrelated to the facilitation of message transmission”.

“Representing to users that the content of Facebook messages is “private” creates an especially profitable opportunity for Facebook, because users who believe they are communicating on a service free from surveillance are likely to reveal facts about themselves that they would not reveal had they known the content was being monitored,” it adds.

“Thus, Facebook has positioned itself to acquire pieces of the users’ profiles that are likely unavailable to other data aggregators.”

The lawsuit also demands that Facebook pays as much as $10,000 in damages for each user.

This is not the first time Facebook faces criticism over its privacy policies. Last September, it came under attack over a proposed change to its privacy policy which would have permitted advertisements to be created using the names and profile pictures of its users.

The recent lawsuit has been issued on behalf of 166 million users in the US but Facebook users all over the world are believed to have been affected by the alleged practice.

Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn are also facing accusations of intercepting users’ communications for profit.